A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Vik Jolly.
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The headlines below are the original headlines used in the publication cited at the time they are posted here and do not reflect the stance of the Water Education Foundation, an impartial nonprofit that remains neutral.
… Climate-fueled costs have injected a new dynamic into
negotiations over extending cap-and-trade before the
legislative session ends Sept. 12. … Negotiations
to extend cap-and-trade to 2045 have moved slowly behind closed
doors for much of the year. The program is complex, and just 21
of the state’s 120 legislators were in office for the last
reauthorization vote. But the talks have become more urgent as
auction returns earlier this year faltered, reflecting
uncertainty about the future of the program.
Before the town of Bouse overhauled its groundwater system in
2025, residents were hesitant to drink from their
taps. … A new study from Clemson University could add
weight to those fears, seeming to confirm for the first time
that arsenic exposure can lead to widespread damage to
neurological systems like vision and motor function. The
study casts a new light on an issue that has plagued
southwestern communities for decades. Almost one-fifth of the
main aquifers in the southwestern United States contain levels
of arsenic above federal drinking water regulations, according
to the US Geological Survey.
Residents in Benson, Arizona, are up in arms about a proposed
aluminum processing plant they say could pollute their air and
deplete their water. In fact, they’re so mad about it, they’re
trying to recall the mayor and City Council over the issue.
Aluminum Dynamics is preparing to build a $190 million
recycling plant in the 5,500-person city in an area zoned for
heavy industrial use. At a recent public hearing over the
issue, the Arizona Republic reported that residents essentially
begged Arizona Department of Environmental Quality officials to
deny the company’s air quality permit application.
For the past eight years, a manufactured home park in Tucson
has been overcharging its residents for water by hundreds of
dollars. But that practice ended this summer when the Arizona
attorney general stepped in as part of a broader investigation
into submetering practices in mobile home parks. Now Skyline
Real Estate, the company that runs Desert Haven Mobile Home
Park in Tucson near I-10 and Miracle Mile, will credit
residents with the money they overpaid. … Residents in
master meter parks are at the mercy of an antiquated utility
system with a history of overcharging problems.
Faced with new cost overruns, the board of Santa Clara County’s
largest water agency on Tuesday voted to kill a plan to build a
huge new reservoir in the southern part of the county near
Pacheco Pass after eight years of studies and $100 million in
public spending. The board of the Santa Clara Valley Water
District voted 6-0 to halt planning and engineering studies,
and to withdraw the agency’s application for state bond funds
for the Pacheco Reservoir project.
As flames from the Pickett Fire continue to sweep through the
rugged landscape of Northern California’s Napa County, local
officials have declared a health emergency, citing fears that
hazardous debris could infiltrate the area’s drinking
water systems. The blaze, which ignited August 21
near Aetna Springs, has scorched more than 6,800 acres and is
just 17 percent contained, according to Cal Fire. More than
2,700 firefighters are on the ground as of Tuesday, working to
prevent the fire’s advance toward critical infrastructure and
populated areas.
Money raised from California’s cannabis industry is being
channelled into saving endangered Coho salmon in Santa Cruz
County. The state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has
awarded more than $3.9 million from its Cannabis Restoration
Grant Program to the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project
(MBSTP), supporting operations at the Kingfisher Flat
Conservation Hatchery. The programme, funded by cannabis tax
revenues and penalties from unlicensed cultivation, was created
to repair environmental damage linked to the industry. This is
the first time it has supported Coho salmon conservation south
of San Francisco Bay.
A pair of recent court decisions in San Diego—Patz v. City of
San Diego and Coziahr v. Otay Water District—have thrust
California’s Proposition 218 back into the spotlight. But what
is this proposition, and how does it affect our water bills and
the state’s water providers? As Californians grow increasingly
concerned about affordability, we asked Dave Owen, a professor
at UC Law San Francisco, to explain how Prop 218 and water
rates are connected. … [Dave Owen:] “Prop 218 matters for
water because it imposes limitations on fees.”
… Federal funding cuts have targeted the network of ocean
buoys that make up the Coastal Data Information Program
(CDIP), which has been run by UC San Diego’s Scripps
Institution of Oceanography for the past 50 years. The
buoys can be found along the West Coast, the Gulf Coast, the
East Coast and the Pacific Islands. (At present, 27 of them are
off the coast of California.)… Experts say that
eliminating the buoys may compromise the accuracy of weather
forecasts. … The loss of buoy data could also mean
fewer systems are in place to track toxins in the water
and aid in public safety during natural
disasters. Coastline monitoring helped protect
people from exposure to dangerous bacteria and viruses during
the 2017 Tijuana River sewage plume.
… California’s largest freshwater system, the State Water
Project, is threatened both by catastrophic collapse from
earthquakes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, as well as
long-term decline from saltwater intrusion into existing pumps
from rising sea levels. … The Delta Conveyance Project —
which would connect existing aqueducts to a new, safer
freshwater diversion point farther upstream from the Bay via an
underground tunnel — has been studied for over 40 years at the
expense of hundreds of millions of dollars and is simply the
most cost-effective solution to this problem. –Written by Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay
Area Council.
Early this year, Steven Cook was a lawyer representing chemical
companies suing to block a new rule that would force them to
clean up pollution from “forever chemicals,” which are linked
to low birthrates and cancer. Now Mr. Cook is in a senior role
at the Environmental Protection Agency, where he has proposed
scrapping the same rule his former clients were challenging in
court. His effort could shift cleanup costs away from polluters
and onto taxpayers, according to internal E.P.A. documents
reviewed by The New York Times.
… The Sacramento region is in one of the nation’s most
flood-prone metropolitan areas, and its levee system is
vulnerable to “erosion, seepage and stability,” the U.S. Army
Corps said on its website. The Corps will raze trees to install
riprap, or rocks, along the lower American River, as well as
fortify the Natomas East Main Drainage Canal, Arcade Creek and
Magpie Creek. … But the Corps did not consider any other
methods other than riprap, according to the lawsuit filed
Thursday by the Save the American River Association, American
River Trees organization and the Center for Biological
Diversity in Eastern District of California.
As California water officials consider changes to the state’s
regulatory framework for nitrogen applications and discharges
by farms that irrigate, those representing growers who rely on
nitrogen fertilizers say more data and time are needed before
strict targets are imposed. … Composed of University of
California scientists and Cooperative Extension specialists,
the second statewide agricultural expert panel is tasked with
reassessing and updating the state’s regulatory approach to
reduce nitrates. The panel met twice this month to review
nitrogen reporting data collected as part of the state’s
Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program, or ILRP, which governs how
regional agricultural orders manage farm runoff.
Moisture-laden air spreading across the Southwest in recent
days has brought much-needed rain to drought-ridden areas,
while also unleashing thunderstorms, dust storms, strong winds
and flooding. This seasonal weather pattern, known as the
monsoon, has led to some spectacular — albeit disruptive and
even dangerous — weather. … In California, thunderstorms
brought rain to Yosemite National Park that recharged the famed
Yosemite Falls, which usually goes dry in late August.
… The chance for isolated storms across the Southwest
was expected to taper off by Thursday and Friday.
… Housing developers and farmers in increasingly urban areas
celebrated the signing of Arizona’s new “ag-to-urban” water
program, which Gov. Katie Hobbs called a “huge water policy
win.” … But some of the left-leaning lawmakers who voted
against the new law that paves the way for some agricultural
water to be used instead to boost housing developments,
environmental activists and farmers whose land is outside of
the limited areas that it impacts say it doesn’t go far enough
in protecting the state’s water future — or their
livelihoods. On the other hand, some far-right lawmakers
who voted against the proposal argued that it went too far in
protecting the state’s water future and the state would be
better off throwing open the doors to developers.
Two San Diego County supervisors on Wednesday praised a
decision to expand treatment capacity at the South Bay
International Wastewater Treatment Plant. In a statement,
Paloma Aguirre and Joel Anderson said a cease-and-desist order
will allow the plant to treat an additional 10 million gallons
per day, from 25 million gallons to 35 million gallons. The
California Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted the
order during its regular meeting Wednesday. Aguirre and
Anderson described that decision as “a major step toward
reducing untreated sewage flows through the Tijuana River
Valley.”
The Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA) has issued an urgent
directive for all customers to immediately stop outdoor
watering due to high turbidity levels in the Truckee River.
This situation is expected to worsen following a mudslide near
the California-Nevada state line. To safeguard the
region’s water treatment plants from excessive sediment and
debris, TMWA will close some river intakes, significantly
reducing treatment capacity. Although the water supply remains
secure, TMWA will rely heavily on groundwater wells to meet
demand.
It was a gorgeous June Saturday on Lake Tahoe, but the day
turned stormy in minutes when a torrent of winds whipped up
choppy waters that terrified boaters. Eight people died. The
Times looked at videos, radar and satellite imagery, and
interviewed over 30 people, including meteorologists, local
officials and boaters who were on the lake that day. The
investigation revealed a rare set of circumstances that led to
the unexpectedly dangerous day.
TSMC Arizona has broken ground and begun construction this
month on a planned 15-acre Industrial Reclamation Water Plant
(IRWP). The IRWP is designed to achieve “Near Zero Liquid
Discharge” which means the company will have the ability to
reuse nearly every drop of water. At start-up, the IRWP will
reach 85% recycling rate with a plan to reach 90% or better.
… This plant will convert industrial wastewater back to
the “ultrapure” standard required in the chipmaking process.
As the United States passes a tipping point in water security,
new research reveals that millions of Americans now face a
growing crisis in accessing clean, affordable water. The
findings, published in PLOS Water and PLOS One, were produced
by a multi-university team co-led by Dr. Wendy Jepson,
professor of geography and director of Environmental Programs
at Texas A&M University. ”Our research shows water
insecurity in the U.S. is not just a problem of pipes and
infrastructure—it’s a human issue that affects health, daily
life and dignity,” Jepson said.
